Leading the assault from the front, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi, sat on a dharna in the Parliament House complex, shouted slogans and declared that the campaign for resignation of BJP leaders will continue even if all its members are “thrown out of Parliament”.
“Suspension of our MPs is anti-democratic. Democracy is being murdered,” said Sonia, as she, in a rare occurrence, raised slogans along with top party leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, AK Antony and Anand Sharma against the Speaker’s decision. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also present.
“We will not budge from our stand and there will be no let up in our pressure (on government) as far as issues of corruption, Sushma Swaraj and Vyapam are concerned,” Rahul told reporters, making clear the party’s intent to carry on with its belligerent posture on the issue of resignations of top BJP leaders accused of wrongdoing.
“Vyapam scam has destroyed future of 1000s in MP. There is clear evidence that Sushmaji has broken the law. Clear evidence that Rajasthan CM (Vasundhara Raje) directly involved financially with Lalit Modi,” he said.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s on the issue, the Congress leader took a swipe at him, saying though he made his voice heard through his radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat’, he was not prepared to listen to the “voice of the country”.
The government on Tuesday hit back at the Congress after party president Sonia Gandhi called the suspension of 25 MPs from the Lok Sabha “murder of democracy”. Lashing out at the Congress, the government said that there was no democracy in the DNA of the Opposition party which is ruled by “maa-beta” (mother-son).
Union minister Prakash Javadekar also blamed the Congress chief and party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi for the disruption of Monsoon Session of Parliament and alleged that the Opposition party was driven by “ineptitude” and its “jealousy” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “successes”.
Addressing mediapersons, Javadekar said that PM Modi would speak in Parliament if the Opposition allows its work and cited several instances of the government making efforts to break the impasse. He claimed that the treasury benches were “reaching out” but Congress was “backing out”.
“Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are squarely responsible for the logjam. The Speaker’s decision to suspend 25 members is right,” said Javadekar, as he cited the use of marshals in the House to remove eight Samajwadi Party members, who were protesting against the Women Reservation Bill, and other instances during the Congress governments to hit out at the party.
“I am surprised that Congress is talking about democracy. The whole party is undemocratic. To see it use the language of democracy is like satan reading the Bible. There is no democracy in its DNA. Even today mother is the party president and son is its vice-president,” Javadekar said. The Congress should believe in parliamentary democracy, he said and asked the Opposition party to shun its “bravado” and start debates in Parliament.
